Sunday, June 12, 2005

Day's 1 & 2

EDIT: I hate Mac's, so I'll try to figure out this bold/italics tagging b.s. as soon as I can. Also adding one more film for Sunday.

Things are a bit more organized here this year and most people seem to know what's going on, so it's looking like this year is going to be a little better than last year. Of course there's no David Lynch, but I'll manage with what's here. The party at the Green Valley Ranch topped last years which seemed pretty much impossible. 2,000 people, free food and drinks everywhere, scantily clad dancers in or around every pool, and taking place at a hotel where people who look down on the nice hotels on the strip would stay. The only bad thing is its the peak of the parties, but there's still plenty of fun to be had.

And yes, they're showing films here too, so without further ado:

Saturday, June 11

Red Doors (Georgia Lee, 2005) 42

A somewhat unique film as dysfunctional family drama's go and it never gets bogged down by its melodramatic pursuits nor caught up in the lighter side it touches on. The performances were surprisingly good and the direction never stagnant, but there were too many storylines and not enough support behind any of them. The youngest daughter's endless battles with a schoolmate was clearly weak link and became silly and intrusive while the other stories matured. The film was strongest when following the middle daughter coming to terms with her sexuality and the father realizing that his family has dominated his life to an unhealthy degree and otherwise it stumbles through the motions. It's sweet and amusing, but uneven and not quite satisfying.

Bravo to Gabe for going from 64 upon leaving the theater and ending at 39 four days later.

(s) Foxy and the Weight of the World (David & Nathan Zeller, 2005) 41

Never as funny as it should've been, but there's something amusing about a dying man, who's an admitted bastard and was poisoned by his girlfriend, spending his last few minutes on earth preparing his dog for what's to come. It's downright stupid at some points, but I can't be too harsh since it had a few hilarious lines scattered about its miniscule 8 minutes.

Trona (David Fenster, 2005) 13

Everything people who don't see indy films hate about indy films. Insufferably pretentious, aimless, witless - the best way I could describe it is to imagine the first 3 or 4 minutes of Paris, Texas stretched out to just over an hour. The symbolizm is heavyhanded to the extreme and, for the most part, it's a man wondering through the desert "redefining" himself. Sorry, this is no Gerry, Zabriskie Point, or numerous other more successful films that I'm sure the director caught the trailers for.

Chalk up another one in the "painfully contrived thrillers that fail to redeem themselves by tossing in an extremely obvious twist at the finish". I figured with Eriq LaSalle, Nia Peeples, and Stephen Weber that this would at least be one of the better acted films of the festival, but far from it. It's Lifetime quality on those counts, taking the audience for idiots a number of times in its slow treck towards the center of the mystery. I'm also incredibly sick of seeing countless films satirize the cookie cutter image of suburban America as if it really all is like The Truman Show, but underneath they're all a bunch of perverted, pill-popping, wife beating bottom dwellers. Can't we all just watch Blue Velvet and be done with it, please?